Fresh and nutritious vegetables aren’t always in season, but Gleaners Food Bank in Belleville is working to change that with a new growing dome.
The dome space, located at their Wallbridge Crescent property, is 42 feet in diameter. Inside the dome is a series of raised growing beds packed with vegetables, along with a gravity fed watering system, and a pond to help with temperature and humidity regulation.
Between the pond and natural sunlight, inside temperatures fluctuate between -2 Celsius at its coldest to 34 Celsius on a day with clear skies, allowing the plants inside to grow during the cold winter months.
Rainwater collected from a rooftop cistern is pumped into a set of raised storage tanks, which is then gravity fed into watering hoses for the plants. Photo: Alan-Michael Steele, Quinte News
Construction of the dome began in June, 2024.
Tammy Hellam, a gardener at Gleaners working on the project, says that once the current crop has been harvested, and temperatures rise, they plan to rotate to warmer weather plants.
“We’re going to have seedlings for tomatoes, peppers, herbs, of course, and anything that’s got the heat,” said Hellam. “We’ll be able to plant that a couple of months earlier than what you would if you were outside.”
Tammy Hellam, one of the gardeners working on the project, shows off their current “cold crops.” Right now the growing beds contain lettuce, kale, carrots, beets, onions, and radish. Photo: Alan-Michael Steele, Quinte News
There are plans to expand the growing space with trellises and frames to allow more use of the space vertically, along with plans to introduce fish to the pond, in order to use their waste as fertilizer. The crops grown inside are planned to be rotated in order to ensure a variety of fresh food and help with soil health.
Crop rotation is not the only soil health plan in place, worm farms are being prepared as well, to keep a healthy number digging in the soil.
Produce from the dome is planned to be added to the food distributed by Gleaners through their ongoing programs.
The growing dome sits among more exterior grow beds for use during the warmer summer months. Photo: Alan-Michael Steele, Quinte News
